Blue Camas

The Blue Camas or camassia quamash is a lily bulb with light blue flowers and is related to the wild hyacinth. Blue camas along with other edible camassia species was an important food source for Native Americans and settlers in parts of the American Old West and in Canada. Camas bulbs were key to the survival of members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Blue Camas can be pit-roasted, baked, boiled, smashed and pressed and then boiled in stew, cooked and ground into meal to make pancakes, or made into loaves, cakes, mash, gravy or syrup. It also can be dried and stored for winter use.

A pit-cooked camas bulb looks and tastes something like baked sweet potato, but sweeter, and with more crystalline fibers due to the presence of inulin in the bulbs. Cooked camas cakes taste a little like baked pear.

Camas has been known to be used for the various medicinal purposes including as a birthing aid, cough medicine, and pain reliever. It was also the main source of carbohydrates for the Native Americans.

The blooming season for camas is generally April through June. While the blue camas is edible and nutritious, it may occasionally grow with the white-flowered Meadow death-camas, which are extremely poisonous and which have very similar bulbs.

Source: www.wikipedia.org

The Blue Camas or camassia quamash is a lily bulb with light blue flowers and is related to the wild hyacinth. Blue camas along with other edible camassia species was an important food source for Native Americans and settlers in parts of the American Old West and in Canada. Camas bulbs were key to the survival of members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
Blue Camas can be pit-roasted, baked, boiled, smashed and pressed and then boiled in stew, cooked and ground into meal to make pancakes, or made into loaves, cakes, mash, gravy or syrup. It also can be dried and stored for winter use.
A pi..

Directions:1. Remove the papery sheath off the bulbs and put them in an ovenproof container with a lid. Pour in just enough water to cover the bottom of the container by about 1/4 inch or so. Cover the container and bake the camas bulbs at 220-230 degrees for 12 hours. Check on them after 8 hours or so. You want them to look anything from pale gold to full golden.2. Slice the bulbs into rings and lightly dust them with fine salt. Saute them in olive oil, butter or some other fat until they brown. They will be a little sticky, so keep the pan moving for the first minute or so to prevent the bulbs from sticking to the pan. Keep an eye on them, as the sugars in the camas will caramelize fast.3. To finish, toss with the verjus and dust with the smoked salt. Eat at once.